Chocolate chip cookies

For the past few Christmases, I've made some kind of sweet treat to send to my relatives. I started it one year when I was especially poor and thought a homemade gift would be best. In addition, since I have a lot of relatives, the pressure to get them all something was too much, so sending them a box of chocolate truffles or cookies seemed a nice way to a) use my one talent [and I use the word 'talent' very loosely here]; and b) give something that could be shared by many.

I did it! Pasta carbonara

Have you noticed my ever-growing list of foods I want to make over on the right sidebar? Pasta carbonara was one of the first on the list. I have been fascinated by carbonara for a while now. I think it was the idea of a raw egg being mixed into some hot noodles. How could that work? Isn't that some kind of health code violation?

Nonetheless, I tried it, first at Otto. I thought it was deliciously simple.


Making it, however, was a different story.

More chocolate, in the form of a cookie

For the past few weeks, I have had to stay up for work until as late as 1 am. I wouldn't have any actual work to do, but I would just have to stay up in case the client needed something. It's incredibly hard to stay up that late when you have nothing to do.

Thankfully, I could do this from the comfort of my own home and usually I would pass the time watching TV or movies or surfing the web. But this would make me tired and make it even more difficult to stay up (I did once fall asleep--shhh, don't tell).

Chipotle espresso chili

I make chili all the time. It is sort of a go-to meal for me, especially in the winter and especially due to the time when I was more vegetarian than not.

I've tried a few varieties but for the most part, I stick to a formula of onions, garlic, canned diced tomatoes, beans (always black, sometimes kidney or chick), sometimes ground turkey, and corn if I have it. Chili powder, cumin, salt and pepper are usually the only flavorings.


But not too long ago, I saw this recipe online and was drawn to the photos of the resulting chili. It was dark and thick and indulgent. I had to have it.

Spaghetti squash with sun-dried tomatoes and an egg

Ok, I admit it. I am a sucker for fad diets. The first time I heard about the Zone diet (from a college professor who had joined our table at dinner one night in the campus dining hall), I immediately took steps to alter my eating habits accordingly (he said it was about having roughly the same amount of carbs and protein, so whenever I would have pasta, I would add an equivalent amount of tofu to my sauce--at the time, I wasn't eating the school's beef).

Chocolate, glorious chocolate

I made these for the Mexican Chef's housewarming party.

I bought instant espresso powder specifically for this recipe. Ordinarily, I refuse on principle to buy something that I will only use for one recipe. I relented in this case because I noticed it coming up on several chocolate-based recipes so I figured I would use it again in the future.

Turns out, it makes a great cup of coffee.

Just-an-ordinary-day pasta

Most of the time when working late, I usually slap together some kind of "dinner" with leftovers, pre-packaged foods and/or (rarely) take-out. It involves maybe one pan and usually the microwave. Sometimes I don't even use a plate. It tastes fine and I'm usually satiated, hunger-wise, but it's not really satisfying.

How I spent my Thanksgiving

Wednesday nightAfter working much later than I had anticipated (and being majorly depressed after learning that I would have to cut my Thanksgiving break short in order to be on a work call on Friday), I ran home to prepare the stuffing. I chopped, I sauteed, I mixed. It was glorious.


This* is the stuffing recipe I've been making for years (the printout copy of this that I have is dated 2002--yikes). I've looked at other stuffing recipes but this one is special and unique without being overly complicated. As usual, I have my modifications:

Cornbread

This is perfectly sufficient cornbread. Good but not spectacular. Which is why it's great for stuffing--it provides a yummy buttery flavor without overwhelming the rest of the stuffing ingredients.

The original recipe is from a bag of cornmeal I bought a long time ago, cut out and saved in a little recipe book (ah, the olden days before recipes could be bookmarked on your computer). It's the same as the Gourmet recipe that follows the stuffing recipe I use, except that the Gourmet recipe uses double the amount of butter.